A user can operate a joystick or other manual interface to remotely control a camera equipped drone, while watching the drone's camera image on a display. This technique can be acceptable for certain applications, but has limitations. One is that high user skill may be required. Another is that for some applications and users, watching the camera view on a head mounted display (HMD) may be preferable. However, a user controlling a drone with a joystick or other manual interface while watching the camera view on an HMD can find the experience unsettling. This can be due to changing orientation of the view on the HMD without any inner ear sense of a corresponding changing of head orientation.
The HMD can be provided with a controller or sensor package that observes the user's head position and orientation and transmits corresponding signals to the drone, with the objective of the drone tracking that position and orientation. However, technical issues in this technique can make it unsuitable for various applications. One is matching the orientation of the image on the HMD to the movement of the user's head with low latency to avoid motion sickness.